The present invention relates in general to the inspection of welds, and in particular to a new and useful inspection technique which utilizes an Electromagnetic Acoustic Transducer or EMAT.
Laser welded panels are used in such applications as automobile doors where variations in thickness are desirable in a component to reduce material costs and weight. Many welding defects are encountered in the welding mismatch such as lack of fusion, lack of penetration, concavity, and step mismatch. The current method for detecting these defects is by visual inspection. This method is both slow and ineffective since many defects cannot be identified by visual techniques.